I agree. I was very happy to get new figures in 95, and accepted the buffness as just a product of the times. However, it was pretty obvious that Kenner/Hasbro had judged the market wrong because those buff sculpts quickly became more realistically proportioned.

Likewise they progressed the line, gradually, to include new features, new articulation standards ever-increasing, new paint details and techniques, tampo designs, deeper crisper sculpting, sculpting styles to hide articulation, and so on.

These figures were here... they exist already, for the most part. Likewise, most of these exist in what people who like articulation better consider superior figures... I've seen people cite Jedi Luke, as superior to his vintage figure... he's not even out yet, but I really can't see that point of view. More power to a person, but that Vintage figure was damn near perfect in height, deco, detail, likeness... If anything I felt the new 5 POA figure looks a little too large and the face/hair details seem a little less than the TVC figure.

My interest stays that only "new" has caught my eye for the most part. That Rex, and Maul, are about it for me right now... And even then, I'd probably want to modify them into better figures ovearll, ultimately. Debating the Vader Droid still. These are just starting to surface here right now. The price is about good for what you get... I can't say great because you get so much less of a figure than you would with the $10 figure, but it's tough to argue that the price makes compulsive purchases easy enough.

Likewise it's easier to buy at $6 and not regret the purchase in theory, compared to $10 and feeling ripped off which the $10 price point certainly can make you feel that way sometimes about what you got there... With the Skiff Guard great. With a Clone I already have 30 of I was pretty happy with, not so great.

If this is how things go completely for 3.75" though, that will hurt... Took a long time for the line to get to a high quality overall level, where it is now, and I'd have a hard time filling in future new figures I really wanted that were so significantly inferior to figures I bought over the past almost 10 years. That's a direction I hope they don't go, though 2002 was a direction I really hoped they weren't going, and they certainly did, because of the same basic reasoning; Cheap + Kids.

Though I'd be completely happy to see the $10 Black Series stuff down to at most 30 figures a year, and maybe a little better character selection and fewer Clone repaints and Prequal do-overs... If it's a collector line, make it that, and focus on the OT primarily, maybe an EU bone now and then, few and collector-targeted PT figures (Office Duel Palpy), and slightly better, more collector-focused case-packs. If the 5POA figures do what they're supposed to, they should certainly cover any "slack" those wishes for the collector figures could create.

I've seen people cite Jedi Luke, as superior to his vintage figure... he's not even out yet, but I really can't see that point of view. More power to a person, but that Vintage figure was damn near perfect in height, deco, detail, likeness... If anything I felt the new 5 POA figure looks a little too large and the face/hair details seem a little less than the TVC figure.

I guess for me, while it's a better toy, the ball joints look a little goofy to me... and his head looks too big. I think the face-sculpt is better on the new one.

I don't think by any means that the new 'cheap' line is better than the high-quality counterparts across the board, but I think that new Jedi Luke looks more like the real thing, even if it's not posable and has less play value.

I saw these at Target today and passed. I'll second the lousy paint job on some of them - just not very crisp. The packages/figures look incredibly cheap too - they could be getting $10 if they had vintage packaging instead of the flimsy dollar store cardbacks. I passed on them all. Mission Series 2-packs seem to be everywhere now too. I did not see any of the Black Series anywhere yet.

It might just be a coincidence (or the lack of any product for so long), but our local Target store sold through the whole case of these except for one Shocktrooper in the first week they were on the pegs. Surprising, to me at least. Maybe the price is helping? Or maybe people are just desperate for anything. Our store didn't get any Black Series 3 3/4" figures, just put out an older TPM case of vintage figures. All the non-TPM figures (Hoth Luke, Vader, etc.) sold in a couple days and the TPM stuff is left swinging. I have to admit, if you were a non-collector and shopping for kiddos, etc and saw the two packs hanging there for the same price as the Black Series (or Vintage), it seems like a no-brainer for a gift giver. Anyways, it was interesting to see.

Hit a variety of stores today on the way home from a long trip, and found that eye paintjobs on the Legends were almost universally bad... Lots of cross-eyes or one eye much larger than the other, which was funny how figures looked like they were raising their eyebrows.

The 2-packs seem to have better eye aps, which is weird that they do and the singles don't.

I really felt like only R4 looked decent... plain.

And while I saw tons of these figures and the 2-packs at every store I visited except Wal-Marts which hadn't reset yet, I was surprised to not see Yoda but a single one at a Target. All the rest were around in quantity... several falling off cards already, actually.

Your right. The Yoda is the one I rarely see among the rest. I keep considering buying the R4 but keep putting it back. However, Kul Teska at TRU is down to $9.98 and still not selling after all these years.

Hit a variety of stores today on the way home from a long trip, and found that eye paintjobs on the Legends were almost universally bad... Lots of cross-eyes or one eye much larger than the other, which was funny how figures looked like they were raising their eyebrows.

The paint jobs on the eyes remind me a LOT of the Indy figures. Horrible paint on the eyes for the first few waves until that factory figured it out. Wonder if there is the same sort of thing going on here with this line (new line, new price point, new factory/specs).

Yes, that's a good analogy... Like the Indy line, with Indy in particular being the worst at that time. I didn't see a single good one practically at all. One or two maybe acceptable, but not much more. I found an Indy I liked eventually at least.